The Center for Language Acquisition is pleased to announce 2023 Penn State Workshop in Research Methods for Applied Linguists:
Theory and practice in interview research for applied linguists
Instructor: Kathryn Roulston, University of Georgia
This workshop provides participants with a theoretically-informed guide to interview practice that will assist applied linguists to develop as reflective researchers who design high quality research projects that use interviews. I invite researchers who use interviews and focus groups to consider the connections between theory and practice and critically examine how interview data are used to develop knowledge about the social world. The workshop will review an approach that entails researchers considering three interrelated issues—namely, how they theorize research interviews, reflect on their subject positions in relation to the project and participants, and examine the details of interview interaction to inform practice. The workshop will address different theoretical conceptions of the research interview that underlie interviewing practice, including neo-positivist, romantic, constructionist, transformative, postmodern, decolonizing and Indigenous and post qualitative approaches. The theoretical conceptualization of interview used by researchers has implications for how interviews are designed and conducted and how data are analyzed and represented. Participants will engage in practical activities that will encourage reflection concerning their relationships with participants and implications for research design; examine how interview data might be analyzed methodologically to inform research design; and discuss strategies used by qualitative researchers to demonstrate quality. Through developing sophisticated understandings of qualitative interview practice, researchers position themselves to design and conduct quality research projects that provide audience members and communities with significant findings concerning social problems.
Occurrences
-
Friday, September 15, 2023, 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.